Captain America: The Winter Soldier is pretty much exactly what you want out of a Marvel movie. It’s not just a well-done action movie, it’s one that captures the spirit of the comics without slavishly adapting any one plotline. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun, into the bargain. I’ll avoid spoilers, as it’s best to go in cold.

Needless to say, I politely and respectfully disagree with Vince’s review in most respects. There are a few nitpicks: If you’ve seen every Marvel movie to this point, this has a lot more payoff on some levels than it would otherwise, although nothing that will ruin your enjoyment of the movie. And, yes, there’s a little more exposition than one would hope, even if the payoff is often very clever in one way or another.

But the movie itself stands alone, not least because it nails what Captain America is about as a character. What place does trust and loyalty have in a world where you can’t trust anybody? How far do both go when neither are really rewarded the way they should be? And is liberty more important than security? It ties this fairly well to the current political situation; suffice to say that while the weapons that the ultimate villain deploys are science fiction, the ideas he’s working on are not.

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It helps that Robert Redford holds down a key role. Really, this is the most fun the guy’s had in years. Chris Evans actually gets a chance to show off his acting a bit, here, as well. Scarlett Johansson, on the other hand, gets barely enough to justify her character being in the movie, and it does leave her in the lurch slightly.

Lest you’re concerned that this is all serious and stuff, it’s chock-a-block with fight scenes and actually fairly comedic for such a serious political thriller. This is a movie that knows why a good chunk of the audience shows up, and it doesn’t disappoint. A nice touch is that this movie doesn’t pull any punches; a lot of people cack it before the dust settles, and the Winter Soldier is a highly effective action villain.

In all, it’s a great action movie and an even better Marvel movie. Go see it, especially if you love Cap; this movie treats him with the respect he deserves.

Vince has every right to his opinion, and he’s not wrong in the sense that the movie could be better in some respects. I’m kind of annoyed that one key moment has the most weight if you bought DVDs, for example.

I generally enjoy Vince’s reviews, I just skip all the ones on comic book movies. He’s clearly not a comic book fan, so he can’t approach them the same way that I do.
No knock on anyone, it just is what it is.

Yeah, I’m cool with Vince. I know he hates giant robot movies, and I know what to expect from him, so even when I disagree with his figurative thumb up or down, I still get what I want out of his review.

Just because you don’t agree with his review of the movie, doesn’t make Vince bad at his job. He’s one of the better reviewers on the internet. Also, while comic book/genre movies aren’t usually his thing, it always does seem like he gives them a fair shake and tries not to let his preconceptions cloud his review. @Mechakisc if you were honest with yourself, you’d admit that Pacific Rim was just not a good movie.

@yellowmenace You have to understand, I also LOVE Sucker Punch. I can easily see the pervy, rapey stuff that everyone complains about, but none of it comes across to me as though Zach was glorying in that so much as he was trying to say something … we all have our battles to fight/crosses to bare, and they aren’t always the same thing, maybe. The lines at the end really drove it home for me. Sucker Punch says to me, life sucks, but you don’t have to hate it, you can do something to help other people no matter your circumstance. It is a hugely important movie, to me. I have watched it probably 10 times, I own the DVD, it is saved on my DVR from when it was on Showtime or HBO or something, etc. I’m serious about this movie. When she’s a little older, I’m going to make my daughter watch it with me, and home that the same message comes through for her.

Everyone else just sees it as this skeevy mess. And like I said – I can see what they are describing, but I can’t quite wrap my head around how they get to that point with it.

Pacific Rim is very similar, in that I haven’t seen it, and I desperately want it to be a ton of fun, even if the acting and whatever other technical issues aren’t that great.

X-men 1 had 2 women, one of whom was black, and a crippled guy (not counting Rogue since she was kind of the damsel in distress that time around). X-men 2 had 4 women, 1 of whom was blue and another who was black, and 1 blue man. Your move, America.

At what point in time did Captain America get powered up? My dad’s pretty old. He has the a lot of the Captain America comics that deal with the Cosmic Cube from like the 60’s and he basically always said that he has the powers of a Olympic-level athlete.

But would it? It’s not like what I am guessing happens in the movie isn’t too different than that has happened in the books. Maybe they just become a freelancing scooby gang for half an arch. I still think it is a show worth having as its a great advertising platform for movies.

Been dying to talk about this on this site for over a week now. Seriously, is this movie one of the reasons why the show has been so shitty? If they knew this was coming why the hell did they even bother with the TV show?

People keep mentioning a DVD only scene giving more relevance to a part of this movie. I’ve seen the movie, but probably missed the DVD scene. Which movie’s DVD? Captain America The First? Or that Shield Bonus DVD from the Avenger’s box set? I have them all somewhere but haven’t really explored the bonus features yet.

Which is really the biggest problem with running movies like comic books (and also one of the things that kept me from a lot of comic books), if you haven’t read/seen everything, then you’ll be thinking “Who?” while everyone else is gasping.

This movie kicked ass Dalton-style. Best version of Cap yet – he has super-powers, he used his shield like he does in the comic, and Evans finally came to form as the character. Loved it. There are actually two credits scenes. Loved the mid-credits scene, but the after-credits scene was lame and thrown in. Totally unnecessary.